San Antonio's Tim Duncan, left, fights for a loose ball with Detroit's Ben Wallace on June 23, 2005, at the SBC Center in San Antonio, Texas. / Julian H. Gonzalez / DFP

Written by

Dan Feldman

Detroit Free Press Special Writer

Dan Feldman writes for the Detroit Pistons blog PistonPowered. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Detroit Free Press nor its writers. PistonPowered writers will contribute a column every Friday at freep.com/pistons. Contact Dan anytime at pistonpowered@gmail.com or on Twitter @pistonpowered.

As the Detroit Pistons celebrate the 10th anniversary of their 2004 championship, they're about to lose their unique place in NBA history.

Or at least they should.

Really, they never should have had it.

Those Pistons will be remembered for their superb balance and teamwork  and they should be. Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace complemented each other extremely well, and all filled significant roles.

But contrary to what many believe, the '04 Pistons were not a superstar-less team.

Ben Wallace was a superstar.

Certainly not in recognition, but absolutely in production. It's a shame too few realize it.

For a two-year stretch around the title, I would have taken Wallace right behind Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett. The tier Wallace fit into included three other players, all of whom carry more name recognition but had serious flaws at the time.

Shaquille O'Neal lacked motivation and focus, and his weight exacerbated those issues. Kobe Bryant was struggling to learn how to dominate with Shaq in the way. (Later, Kobe would learn that the key was forcing out Shaq.) Dirk Nowitzki could fill a stat sheet, but he hadn't yet developed the all-around game that eventually would lead the Dallas Mavericks to the title.

Wallace's peak was shorter than theirs, and at other times, they reached levels he never did. But for a short period, Wallace was just as valuable on the court as Shaq, Kobe and Nowitzki.

Defensively, Wallace earned most of his respect, but it was never enough.

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He used to guard all five opponents. On single possessions!

That type of versatility is viewed more favorably now that positionless basketball has become more popular. But it was just as important then, though few realized it.

Even offensively, Wallace remains underrated. Sure, he couldn't shoot, especially free throws. But he could offensively rebound and set screens with the best of them. He also passed deftly for his size and finished around the rim well enough to keep defenses honest.

I'm not arguing that Wallace was an offensive whiz, just underrated on that end. Paired with his historically great defense, that's enough to put him among the NBA's elite players in and around 2004.

But he's frequently not even viewed as elite among the 2004 Detroit starters. Too often, I hear that Billups or even Sheed, Rip or Tay was better. Though so many members of that team were underrated, any argument that Ben Wallace wasn't the best on the title team is an insult to him.

It's unfortunate that team's legacy is so inaccurately defined.

Which brings us to this year.

The San Antonio Spurs  with their deep bench, versatile offense and flexible defense  are more balanced than any team I've seen, including the 2004 Pistons.

Duncan's best years are behind them, and though he's still very good, his production no longer reaches superstar levels. Neither does Tony Parker's nor any other San Antonio player's